Lag

An example of fire lagging in a popular game called "Welcome to Roblox Building" by ROBLOX (user).

Lag is an occurrence in many places in which a player's computer/game console slows down movement in-game due to network latency or struggling performance. It can be described as "a failure to keep up".[citation needed] Lag can be very devastating for some players, and there are varying degrees, from slight jerkiness (mild lag) to total process freezing (extreme lag). Lag can occur from various things such as too many projectiles firing from a weapon or too many bricks (especially unanchored ones) present in a server.

Lag can be rather annoying to many players whenever it happens to their computers and can occur in many place servers.

There is a variety of lag types in ROBLOX.

Types of Lag

Ping (Latency) - The main cause of delay. Players who are too far from the ROBLOX server or have a very slow internet (such as dial-up) will get high ping which will result in a delay with almost all actions. More can be seen here.

Brick Lag - This usually occurs when there are approximately 10,000 bricks or more present in a server. It hits hardest when you look at all of them, or if the majority of them are un-anchored.

Decal Lag - Thousands of decals will cause lag when the player looks at all of them at the same time, similar to bricks.

Computer Lag - Because ROBLOX is a 32-bit application, it is limited to at maximum, 4 gigabytes of Random Access Memory with Large Address Aware enabled. This causes ROBLOX to have lag when these resources are used up. Additionally, this can be caused by overuse of the computer's central processing unit, which handles most processes. This can usually be solved by either upgrading the computer's hardware if it is very weak, or disabling other 32-bit applications or programs using high percentage of CPU power.

Entry Lag - One of the most common types of lag occurs just as the player enters a server, with the lag usually disappearing after some time. If this particular player has a large amount of saved data (see here), the lag experienced is more substantial. Multiple players joining simultaneously is another factor affecting this lag.

Internet Lag - This type of lag occurs when the player has a slow internet connection speed. This is caused by network receive going down to 0.0B/s.

Server Lag - This is when the player's computer and/or internet is functioning properly, but the server is lagging severely, these actions that occur on the server are delayed and every other player present appears to freeze up, except for the player itself (this is because the client itself isn't lagging). This is less common, and the only way to stop it is for the player to quit the game, and join a different server.

Excessive Lag - This is a rare kind of lag and could occur when the computer and internet is slow/weak, the server is lagging at the same time and other websites and applications are competing for CPU and internet usage. Lost connections, hardware failures and game crashes are most likely to occur during this, due to the combined risks.

Tool Lag - This lag occurs when a player has too many tools that load. This especially is more likely to occur when a player has too many gears in a gear game. It will only happen if the player joins, resets, or gets KO'ed. It is generally due to multiple scripts running at once.

OtherPlayer Lag - This lag affects character entities belonging to other players who experience lag of any kind, which causes them to suddenly stop, then teleport to nearby areas every few seconds. You, everyone else and the server are not affected, apart from resulting possible vehicle collisions.

Lag Compensation - In fighting-themed games, players who have weaker internet connections can potentially kill off a player's character after they are dead. This also happens in first-person shooter games such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Black Ops 2, but the compensation in ROBLOX is even worse than said games.[huh?]

Character Lag - for a short time, the player character shows up as the default character in settings known as "character.rbxm" or if you have R15 it's "characterR15.rbxm" Some players refer to this character model as "Noob". Its a yellow head and arms, a blue torso, and greenish legs. Although rare, this lag may stay present for a few minutes. It has no effect on game-play except it usually happens during a server update or shutdown of ROBLOX's website. Other cases include meshless gray figures with hinges all over their bodies.

Internet-Hungry External Programs - When other websites or applications that use internet like YouTube are running while playing ROBLOX, the game starts freezing a bit or the game will crash if it's on full screen. This lag is most likely because you're running multiple things that require internet. To stop this, close any tabs and apps but the browser containing the ROBLOX website, but if your internet is good enough starting from 1MB/s, you can run YouTube and ROBLOX at the same time.

CPU-Hungry External Programs - Certain websites and external apps can cause ROBLOX to lag by hogging up CPU usage, eventually leading to freezes and possible crashes. It can be avoided by closing CPU-hungry websites and external programs, installing a faster CPU, or getting a computer specifically designed for gaming.

Trivia

This section is a trivia section. Please relocate any relevant information into other sections of the article.

Some players deliberately cause lag via spamming instances of any kind to troll or crash others.

Lag can also be detrimental for developers as it drives users (and therefore profit) away from the affected game.

Lag is one of the things that are complained about by many players the most on ROBLOX.

Lag often causes players to be unable to escape from players trying to kill them, because as some users would usually walk over to the player to kill him/her, they would be unable to move as they come closer to them.

Contrary to popular belief, meshes do not create lag. However, decals do create lag, as proven in this place. However meshes use more disc space than normal bricks.

Back in 2007 or 2008, when the server is lagging, actions that occur on the server are delayed and every other player present appears to freeze including the player character him/herself.

Methods to avoid lag

Reducing Amount of Bricks and Decals: A great way to prevent lag in a place is to reduce the server brick and decal count so that the total amount of bricks is less than 10,000 and the decal amount to 1000. It is also ideal to keep most bricks anchored to save physics.

Beware ofAnti Lag Scripts: There are so called "Anti-lag" scripts in ROBLOX, but most of them will either work as viruses (used to ruin whoever inserts these scripts) or are completely useless. There are some that may reduce lag a bit by removing connections between static objects, but using most of these scripts won't usually reduce lag, and it is more likely to experience the opposite effect of what is intended.

Turning Graphics Down: Turning the graphics setting down can reduce lag in the vast majority of games. It almost always helps in games such as Apocalypse Rising to turn the graphics down to 1 or 2, and then set it to "Auto".

Not downloading viruses: Downloading viruses causes the room on your computer's memory to be short, which can cause lag, such as a Fake Robux Hacker, it can be a virus and make you have HUGE problems, especially related to lag, on ROBLOX.

Resetting your Wi-Fi system: A recommended method if you are lagging in-game. Turn off your Wi-Fi system, wait a minute and try again. This way is one of the most common methods of hopefully reducing lag, though you will have to check if other people are using it right now.

Keeping your computer hardware and software updated: Although ROBLOX has not released technical specifications since 2009, it will run fine on any Intel Celeron (2012-2013) or AMD E2(2012-2013) or above. Intel HD Graphics 5000 or AMD Radeon HD 7000 Series should do the job for keeping a solid 27-30 FPS. Running auto on a 2011 computer may help out with keeping up with the FPS. Keeping the computer software up-to-date is also recommended, as bugs within the system that might have caused lag would have been patched.

Sharing network traffic with other people: Your friends and/or family might also be using the same internet hot spot intensely, causing the network to be slow. Therefore, you might have to wait until they are finished (recommended), or ask them to not use the internet as much (not recommended).

Booting lagging players from servers: Certain players intentionally causing lag via spamming blocks, tools, decals, etc. will have to be kicked or banned and then the server be cleaned up. Other players who are lagging too much may also have to be kicked to prevent lag exploiting.

Keeping running apps to a minimum: ROBLOX runs best when no other website or external app other than the ROBLOX website is running, unless your computer and internet are both fast enough to handle more.